Three former members of the swimming team of the University of Pennsylvania have taken action to expel the women's swimming records that have been established by transgender former colleague swimmer Lia Thomas.
Grace Estabrook, Ellen Holmquist and Margot Kaczorowski, the University, Harvard University, the NCAA and the Ivy League Council of Presidents complained about their 'traumatizing' experience with sharing a team with Thomas.
They accuse the institutions of violating federal law by allowing Thomas to swim against women and share their dressing room facilities during the 2021-22 season, according to the court case.
Thomas is not mentioned as a suspect in the lawsuit, who was brought on Tuesday – a day before President Donald Trump officially signed an executive order to keep biological men out of the sports sports.
The complaint also wants to draw up a Class-Action claim on behalf of 206 female athletes who participated in the Ivy League Swimming and Diving Championships 2022, which was organized by Harvard.
The lawsuit aims at Scrubbing Thomas from the Ivy League, NCAA and IVY institutions, including Harvard and Upenn, and received a statement that the Transgenderatleet was not eligible to compete.
Three former teammates from Lia Thomas have filed a lawsuit to eliminate her records
The claimants claim that allowing the biologically male athlete to compete against women and to share a dressing room was contrary to title IX. They claim that the experience of competing alongside Thomas has left them 'repeatedly emotionally traumatized'.
The lawsuit claims that female swimmers were imprisoned and collateral damage to the illegal social science experiment of the Ivy League. '
It further accuses university managers who push pro-trans ideology on the claimants during the process of accepting Thomas in the team and in the dressing room.
“I never expected that my Ivy League course would teach me that women should quietly accept that they lose their chances and privacy,” Estabrooke said in a press release on Wednesday of the Independent Council on Women's Sports, who supports the lawsuit.
“Women's Sports and the leaders who supervise the feelings of men should not prioritize over honesty and integrity.”
The claimants claim that they were led to feel that their concern was a 'psychological problem' with the athletes who were invited to a lecture entitled 'Trans 101.'
“The Upenn managers told the women that if someone struggled with the acceptance of Thomas's participation at the Upenn Women's team, they must ask counseling and support from CAPS and the LBGTQ center,” the court case claims.
It also claims that university managers have warned them to publicly speak of the situation.
Thomas poses with Upenn teammates Hannah Kannan, Camryn Carter and Margot Kaczorowski during the Ivy League Ladies Swimming and Diving Championships 2022
The Transgender Swimmer on the NCAA Division 1 title as a member of the Upenn ladies team
Thomas, who became the first transgenderatleet who won an NCAA Division 1 title in 2022, had participated in the Upenn Men's Swimming Team under the name Will Thomas from 2017-20 -20.
According to the court case, Thomas was introduced by women's swimming head coach Mike Schnur to women's swimmers during a team meeting in the autumn of 2019 as their incoming teammate.
The athletes claim that they were initially told that Thomas would not share a dressing room with them, but remained shocked – with Kaczorowski claiming that she had even been left in tears – to discover that Thomas could in fact be allowed to use the dressing room.
Coach Schnur would have told the swimmers that he would be fired if he did not allow Thomas to use the dressing room.
The three athletes had to believe that they would be removed from the team if they protested against the participation of Thomas prior to the Ivy League championships 2022, the court case claims.
Thomas was the first to finish in the 500, 200 and 100-Yard Freestyle races at the championships. She set Pool and Ivy League records and eventually became the best scoring swimmer at the entire meeting.
On Wednesday, President Trump stated that the war against women's sports was over.
The 78-year-old surrounded himself with female athletes and activists in the White House to sign an executive order with persuasion to women's sports.
President Donald Trump said he would take steps to ensure that no transgender athletes participated in women's sports on the Olympic Summer Games 2028, which was held in Los Angeles
Trump surrounded himself with female athletes and activists for an executive order that was signed in the East Room on Wednesday, with the exception of perspective in women's sports
The order uses Title IX, a law against sexual discrimination by the taxpayer -financed educational programs, to prohibit transgender girls and women to participate in female school sports activities.
Trump said that his new State Secretary Marco Rubio 'will make it clear to the International Olympic Committee' that “America rejects categorically transgender Lunacy.”
“We want them to change everything that has to do with the Olympic Games and have to do with this absolutely ridiculous subject,” Trump continued.
The promise was one of the most popular Rally in Trump during the 2024 election campaign.
Many students and their parents expressed their concern about opportunities that women lost because of biological men who participated in their sport.
Last week the former opponents of Thomas described the 'fear' and 'abuse' that they encountered while competing against the transgender swimmer.
“There was no escape from this nightmare,” a woman told a hearing of the congress about Thomas, who became the first transgenderatleet who won an NCAA Division 1 title in 2022.
There has been a growing controversy and debate about the future of women's sports in recent years and last Thursday a Senate Committee of Georgia State adopted the 'Fair and Safe Athletic Opportunities Act'.
Kylee Alons (L) and Kaitlynn Wheeler (r) spoke about their experiences during a hearing last week
The bill would require athletes to participate in teams that match their biological sex at birth '. If it steps into the law, Georgia would be the 26th state to introduce restrictions on transgender student athletes.
Thomas won the national championship in Georgia three years ago and two former competitors testified during a hearing last Thursday.
“We were all just guinea pigs for a gigantic social experiment formed by the NCAA with regard to how much abuse and flagrant neglect women would be forced to take in silence,” said former swimmer of North Carolina State Women Kylee Alons, by Fox.
According to Fox, Alons claimed that she wanted to cry and leave the event after seeing Thomas winning the 500m Freestyle.
“It all just felt like that and wrong,” she said. 'I only go to the dressing room that day to see Thomas and realize that there is no escape from this nightmare, where I also go.
'I had no idea that he would be allowed in the ladies' dressing room, because we did not agree to have a man in our dressing room … I immediately informed every time I entered that dressing room afterwards, knows At any time a man at any time can be my income to change.
Allegedly, Alons resorted to turn into a store cupboard behind the stands, instead of entering the dressing room.
Former University of Kentucky -Zwemmer Kaitlynn Wheeler meanwhile spoke about her 'discomfort' and 'fear'.
“Young women, teenage girls were forced to undress next to a completely intact biological man who exposed himself to us, while at the same time we were completely completely exposed,” Wheeler said.
“We were never asked. We have never received a choice or another option. We were only expected to be good with it to push our discomfort, our shame, our fear. Because getting up for ourselves would mean that it is labeled as intolerant or hateful or intolerant. '
Both Wheeler and Lyons joined a lawsuit against the NCAA, led by colleague -before swimmer Riley Gaines. She recently greeted Donald Trump as a 'champion' for women's sport after he stated that the federal government will only recognize two sexes – male and feminine.
